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Parliamentary Correspondent Patrick Daly caught up with Lincolnshire MP Sir Edward Leigh to look back at his 35 years in office.

He walked through the grand portcullis gates of Parliament with some of the biggest names in British politics.

A host of future prime ministers and party leaders took their places on the green benches after the 1983 general election, including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy.

But Sir Edward Leigh, the Conservative MP for Gainsborough, has outlasted them all.

Only 8 MPs survive from the 1983 intake who, along with the seven members elected before them, make up the longest serving 15 MPs in the House of Commons.

Some of those celebrating the 35th anniversary of their election have found a resurgence in their careers – Jeremy Corbyn, after years on the backbenches, has gone on to become leader of the Labour Party.

Sir Edward is not expecting to follow suit, with no anticipation of a call-up to the Cabinet anytime soon or any bold leadership plans.

Sir Edward Leigh makes his acceptance speech at the 1983 general election in Gainsborough

The devout Roman Catholic instead enjoys his role as a backbench MP, free to think and act for himself – a trait that has landed him in hot water not only with party whips but also with former prime ministers over the years.

Ex-Tory PM John Major famously labelled three Eurosceptic rebels in his Cabinet “bastards” in the run up to the bruising Maastricht Treaty votes in 1993.

Sir Edward jokes that he was only a “minor bastard” but he was nonetheless sacked “for the privilege” when, as a junior trade minister, he voted against closer integration with Europe.

He says when historians look back over the period during which he has been an MP, they will consider Europe to be the “most important” issue of the time given the subsequent Brexit vote and current exit negotiations.

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MPs have been talking about Euroscepticism since he was elected, he says, but it was only as the 1980s developed that talk moved to leaving the bloc.

“All this started as we felt the whole process was getting out of control, as [Margaret Thatcher] did,” says the father of six.

“She campaigned famously for Yes in 1975 [during the first European referendum] – I did and everybody did.

“But we now know that people like Peter Shore for Labour and Enoch Powell were right – this was a political project. We can see in the Brexit negotiations it is not an economic project, it is a political project.

The 1983 general election count gets underway in Gainsborough - Edward Leigh won with a majority of 6,826 for the Tories

“So Mrs Thatcher, with the Bruges speech in 1988, she realised she’d been deceived over the [1986] Single Market Act which we’d all voted for – it was a political integration act not a promoting trade act.

“By the time John Major took over in 1990 he was sitting on top of a volcano really.”

That volcano duly erupted again on David Cameron’s watch when he gave the country a vote in 2016 on whether to remain or leave the European Union.

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Sir Edward says the final result, in which the UK voted by 52 per cent to exit, was “inconceivable” when he was first elected but it is “thanks to the people” that Britain is now striking out on its own again.

But, understandably for a man who has spent more than three decades in the House of Commons, he is wary of calling Brexit a career highlight.

After university, he worked as a barrister before taking up the role of correspondence secretary in 1976 in Margaret Thatcher’s private office when she was leader of the opposition.

Gainsborough MP Edward Leigh with his heroine, the former Tory leader Margaret Thatcher in 1992

To this day, he still describes the longstanding PM as his “great heroine” with an influence over his views that has remained intact throughout the years.

He enjoys “toying” with “radical ideas”, he says, as he looks to put his Thatcherism into practice.

“I am a Thatcherite so I do believe in free enterprise, deregulation, low taxation and a smaller state,” he says.

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“My great heroine was Mrs Thatcher and it was great when she was there [in Downing Street]. That was the best time really.

“She was prime minister, we had a big majority and we were changing things. Since then it has been far more difficult. We’ve had much smaller majorities, no majority at all or Labour governments and there’s been a lack of self-confidence I think in these kind of ideas.

“We were told that Britain has changed and all the rest of it but, as we saw with Brexit, there is still a solid conservative majority in many ways and indeed at the last two general elections.”

Sir Edward Leigh MP outside Parliament in November 1999 before a debate about increasing Britain's budget contributions to the EU

Sir Edward is a staunch traditionalist, having voting against moves to allow same-sex marriage and extend the time in which an abortion can be carried out. He is founder of Cornerstone, a group of traditional Christian MPs.

The modernisation of the Tory Party after the landslide 1997 general election defeat to Tony Blair’s New Labour could have seen the Lincolnshire MP – whose constituency includes areas such as Market Rasen, Caistor and West Lindsey – pushed out into the political wilderness.

But a nine-year stint as chairman of the powerful Public Audit Committee, which keeps a watch on public spending, gave him a prominent voice between 2001 and 2009.

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Perhaps surprisingly, he remembers the fallow period of opposition in the late nineties and noughties with great fondness.

He had watched figures such as Gordon Brown give his maiden speech in the Commons in 1983 and saw the rise of Tony Blair first hand as a junior shadow trade minister during the course of the decade.

And as someone who by 1997 was used to the soft-sponge of the backbenches, having a few more friends to cause mischief with was no bad thing, he recalls.

“If you were a backbencher [during the New Labour years] that was quite fun in a way because there were only 165 of us in 1997 and the 2001 parliaments so you could get stuck in,” says the fluent French speaker.

Sir Edward Leigh waits for the 2001 general election result to be revealed

“In many ways, if you are a pretty permanent backbencher as I am, it is almost less frustrating being in opposition because you’re always in opposition and you can get stuck in every day.

“So in fact, I quite enjoyed that parliament.”

There is something that no party of any colour has managed to sort out though, says Sir Edward, and that is the NHS.

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Creaking under strain as the population grows, the NHS now uses up 30 per cent of all Government expenditure.

Sir Edward argues the free-at-the-point of delivery nature of the health service requires a massive overhaul but even he admits his ideas for reform are not without controversy.

“I personally feel we have to look at social insurance, which they have in France and Germany, because there is no room for increases in general taxation,” he says.

Sir Edward Leigh celebrates his re-election in 2001 with family and supporters. The Tories would have another 9 years in opposition

“And if we are taxing people more then they need some stake in it, just like they do in France and Germany with their social insurance.

“But of course the Government is terrified – the NHS is a kind of religion in this country and you can’t tamper with it.”

As times change, so do employment habits. Once upon a time, people had jobs and careers for life – now the average person has 10 different jobs before they are 40.

Yet, even after 35 years in the same job, Sir Edward is still contributing regularly to debates and can often be seen lumbering along the corridors of the Palace of Westminster and the modern enclave of Portcullis House, where his office and staff are based.

Sir Edward says the secret to his years of activism in the mother of all parliaments is his link to Lincolnshire and its people.

“Sometimes you get bored and frustrated because you do have your hand on the tiller of the state but 649 other people have their hand on it as well and they are all pulling in different directions,” says Sir Edward, who was knighted in 2013.

“I think more and more the most rewarding thing, and the thing I most enjoy, is going into the constituency in Lincolnshire where it is very nice, rural and with interesting and nice people, and helping them in surgeries.

“I know it sounds a bit trite to say but the great thing about our system here is we have that wonderful link, all of us, to our constituencies which I think is the best part of the job really.

“I’ve always enjoyed that and living in Lincolnshire for the last 35 years. I still enjoy that. And as it becomes more and more obvious that I’m sadly not going to be appointed to the Cabinet, I can take refuge in that,” he says in jest.

Sir Edward, it appears, landed himself 35 years ago with what every working person strives for – a job they can scarce believe they get paid to do.

“I have always enjoyed being a free thinker and I’ve always enjoyed campaigns and pushing for various things and I think it is wonderful to be paid a salary just to voice your opinions really,” he says.

“MPs complain they are not paid enough or they are too hard worked or aren’t worked hard enough but I think you just have to make the most of it and try and enjoy life.”

Sir Edward's career snapshot

Gainsborough MP Edward Leigh has been an MP for 35 years (Image: Anna Draper)

Born in 1950, grew up and was educated in London

Read history at Durham before becoming a barrister in the capital

Stood unsuccessfully for election in Middlesbrough in 1974 general election

Worked in Margaret Thatcher’s private office between 1976-77

Served as a Tory councillor on Richmond Borough Council in London between 1974-1981

Elected MP for Gainsborough and Horncastle (as it was then known) in 1983

Appointed junior trade minister in 1990 – became the last minister appointed by Mrs Thatcher before she resigned as PM

Sacked as a minister by PM John Major in 1993 after rebelling over Maastricht

Chairman of the Public Audit Committee from 2001-2010

Founder of Cornerstone, a traditionalist Tory Christian group

Rebelled against the Tory whip to oppose the Iraq War

Member of the Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Public Accounts Commission

Led failed rebellion in 2018 to keep MPs in Parliament during major refurbishment works